Will Uber or Lyft Ever be Called Out Publicly for its Shady Business Practices?

They’re both good at deception, but are they that good?

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

If you’ve ever used Uber or Lyft and were in a pinch for time and needed to get somewhere, you may have been zapped with the “Surge.” The Surge is the ridiculous amount they upcharge a regular fare due to “supply and demand.” Some riders have no choice other than to pay the inflated fare. Many depend on this form of public transportation to get to and from work, or other important events throughout the week.

This Surge has nothing to do with supply and demand, in my opinion. I have sat for long periods in a “supposed” Surge zone while getting NO trips. I believe it’s a tactic used to disperse drivers to specific areas to entice them with the Surge that generally disappears before the driver can get to that area.

Generally, a rider can wait, and the fare will readjust and come down in price a little. But more times than not, if you keep checking the fare, it appears there is an algorithm in place that will track how often you are checking the fares waiting for the “drop in prices,” for which it will never return to the regular fare, at least not any time soon.

I know, I have been a driver and passenger in the Cincinnati area since 2014. I have…